At home astride a horse or a Harley

Hall of Fame jockey Gary Stevens has more than 4,700 wins, including three Kentucky Derby victories. Last year, he played a riding legend in the film “Seabiscuit.” And right now, he’s in the homestretch of the Oak Tree season at Santa Anita Park.

So about the last thing he’d want to do with his free time is go horseback riding. Instead, he’ll hop onto his trusty Harley-Davidson for a spin through the mountains. In addition, the 41-year-old budding actor is always up for hanging around his hometown of Sierra Madre with his new wife, Angie, and his four children.

The jockey’s clubs

Since I’m racing on the weekends, my weekends are usually Mondays and Tuesdays. I’m not a Hollywood type of guy, so I very rarely hit the Sunset Strip. I spend a lot of time at local places, either in Old Town Pasadena or here in Sierra Madre. In Pasadena, I love eating at the Arroyo Chop House. And one place in Sierra Madre that I really like is a bar called the Buccaneer. A lot of my friends and I will meet up there for beers and shoot some pool. That’s a typical kind of Tuesday afternoon for me.

Another favorite of mine is the Derby restaurant in Arcadia. I’ve been going there since I was 19 years old, and now I’m close friends with the owner, Chip Steriola. The funny thing is, I was frequenting there long before I was in “Seabiscuit,” and the previous owner of the place was George Woolf, the jockey I played in the film. He’s a hero of mine.

Lots of horsepower under this saddle

I like riding my Harley-Davidson ’98 Heritage Softail up in the mountains on the Angeles Crest Highway. There’s a little roadside tavern along the way -- I don’t even know the name of it. You’ll see guys riding street bikes, Harleys, Honda Gold Wings, all kinds of bikes.

I’ve met a lot of interesting people on my Harley rides. When I was a kid, I used to think of people on Harley-Davidsons as hoodlums, but the folks I’ve met turn out to be moms, dads, just normal kinds of people. I’ve made a lot of friends.

I’ve also got a ’71 Mustang that I like messing around with, and I’ve got a Hummer H2.

Indian relics

When I’m out on my ride, I like to hit a few of the old antique stores in Wrightwood. Obviously, if I have the Harley, I’m not going to be buying anything and lugging it back; for that, I’m going to take the Hummer.

I love to collect old art, old relics that might not mean a whole lot to other people.

I have a big collection of Native American memorabilia: loads of paintings, arrowheads, dream catchers made of eagle feathers. I’ve got a huge tattoo on my back of an Indian brave. I’ve got some Iroquois blood in me, just a little bit.

Fabric of history

I also collect a lot of racing memorabilia. I have a pair of Eddie Arcaro’s riding britches hanging on the wall at home, silks from Stephen Cauthen when he rode Affirmed. And I have my own memorabilia from racing over the years, like the saddle in which I won my first Kentucky Derby.